With an overwhelming amount of knowledge recorded in texts, it is imperative to use automated techniques that can identify, extract, manage, integrate and exploit this knowledge for research and education, efficiently and systematically. The capability of text mining to find knowledge hidden in text and to present it in a concise form makes it an essential part of any strategy addressing these aspects. The National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM) is playing a critical role in ensuring that UK researchers are aware of and have access to effective text mining services, and are able to exploit their capabilities to the full. Text mining is a key technology of e-Science and e-Research activities. The text mining services offered by NaCTeM enable semantic search thus improve access to information and increase the efficiency of new research methodologies and techniques.

National Centre for Text Mining (Phase 2)


Start date: 1 May 2008

End date: 30 April 2011

Funding programme: Support for e-Research programme

Project website: http://www.nactem.ac.uk

Aims and objectives 

Phase 2 of the National Centre for Text Mining will focus on:

  • Expansion of existing proof-of-concept service exemplars to full text mining services for the biosciences
  • Development of new exemplars and full scale services for the new domains of social sciences and health
  • Widening of participation in text mining through proactive dissemination via a portal and related dissemination and training activities
  • Building on the successes of phase I to further develop links with industry 
  • Guiding users to find, use and evaluate state-of-the-art text mining technology and services via the portal.

Key objectives are:

  • Development of text mining (TM) technology to facilitate a variety of applications for different user groups and domains
  • Provision of TM services to UK academic community
  • Encouragement of greater participation by the various communities in e-Research and e-Science through the use of TM
  • Engagement with UK and international community to define, contribute and disseminate best practice and standards in text mining
  • Partnering with other software or service providers to provide best of breed solutions
  • Providing a sustainable future based on a business plan

project staff

Dr Sophia Ananiadou
School of Computer Science
131 Princess St, Manchester, M1 7DN
Manchester, University of Manchester
Email: Sophia.Ananiadou@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 161 306 3092 Fax:+44 161 306 8918
  • Last updated on 11/09/08 by Kerry Ann Down